If you are a Zimbabwean in the diaspora then you have, like
many others in the same situation, lost interest in the Copac constitution
after what many (rightly too) feel was a betrayal by MDC.
There are millions of Zimbabweans now living outside
Zimbabwe, running away from the political repression and/or for economic
survival. Outside Zimbabwe or not you are still Zimbabweans and thus entitled
to have a vote; that was not asking for too! This dysfunctional GNU’s decision
in the Copac constitution to deny Zimbabwean outside the country a vote is
unfair and unjust. Whilst one would accept that the targeted sanctions against
Mugabe and some Zanu PF members would put that party at a disadvantage if the
vote was extended to Zimbabweans living in those country where the travel ban
exist; there was no reason why the vote was granted for the countries with no
ban.
If it was a question of cost, then a R40 or US$ 20 administrative
charge would have cover the extra cost.
The heaviest blow the Copac constitution dealt to the
Zimbabweans in the diaspora was denying those Zimbabweans their birth right to
remain a Zimbabwean citizen if they take up citizenship of another country.
It is tempting to throw in the towel and let Mugabe do as he
pleases (which he is, make no mistake about that) but what most Zimbabweans in
the diaspora do not seem to realise is that this Copac constitution seeks to
short change Zimbabweans within the country’s boarder too. This Copac
Constitution is so weak and feeble it is not going to deliver the right to life
and the right to free and fair elections; two of the most important and must
have rights any constitution worth the name must guarantee.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC friends betray
Zimbabweans in the diaspora and those in the country too. MDC is lying to the
people about taking unspecified “steps and benchmark” to make sure the GPA
agreed reforms, necessary for free and fair elections, are implemented. The
party has failed to get these reforms implemented in the last five years
because Mugabe did not want the reforms and the tyrant is not going to have a
change of heart now.
Once Mugabe gets his yes vote for the Copac rubbish he is
going to roll out his Zanu PF terror machine, well grease with all that Marange
diamonds money, and the nation will have a repeat of the 2008 orgy of violence.
PM Tsvangirai is lying that he will stop the violence occurring again.
The only way to stop a repeat of the 2008 violence and
another meaningless election in which the people are denied a meaningful vote
is by making sure the Copac constitution is rejected during the upcoming
referendum. A no vote will force the implementation of all the reforms and
writing of a truly democratic constitution in which the rights of Zimbabweans
inside Zimbabwe and outside are safe guarded and assured.
The referendum is a game of numbers; if every Zimbabwean in
the diaspora explained to ten Zimbabweans back why they must vote NO and those
in turn talked five other Zimbabweans to vote NO too, the NO vote will carry
the day. This Copac constitution is bad for us all and unless we unit and have
it thrown out in the referendum then we will all suffer for generations to
come!
The Copac constitution will kick all Zimbabweans in the teeth unless we all unit and kick the rubbish out in the referendum!
4 comments:
We can agree to differ on economic policies like land reform and empowerment but we have to agree that people have a right to life and a right to free and fair elections. Only Mugabe and Zanu PF is try to justify they continued political repression on the shaky grounds that if anyone else is elected they will reverse their land policies. The people's basic rights can not and must never be contigent to anything! That is why they are said to inalienable rights.
@ G Galloway
This is not about Tsvangirai or MDC it is about Zimbabweans demanding their democratic right to free and fair elections not in ten years’ time, not five years’ time but this year, 2013! Enough is enough, no more talking about some stupid "incremental gains" or continued denial of basic rights under the pretext of keeping some fictitious white imperialists out of the country!
@ G Galloway
You are really getting desperate now, I can see.
The truth is Mugabe was closer to the West than Morgan Tsvangirai will ever be.
Mugabe was the darling of the West, they gave him so many honorary degrees, the British Queen knighted him and they even turned a blind eye whilst he carried out his massacre of over 20 000 innocent civilians throughout the Gukurahundi years. In return Mugabe allowed the British and the west to do business and the white farmers owned the farms and continued to farming.
It was only in the late 1990s when the Zimbabwe economy was on its knees and Mugabe had nothing with which to bribe his wasteful loyalists who are always demanding for more loot that he turned to white owned farms.
If the land was given to the landless peasants as he says, why has refused a land audit? He does not want the truth to come out.
Mugabe has accused all his political critics of being puppets of the West; that they who would return the seized farms back to the white farmers. He knows a land audit would show he and his cronies own the farms and that the farms will have to be taken away from them and put back into productive. All he cares about is that the loot should not be taken away from him or his cronies.
He is also using this anti-West rhetoric to justify Zanu PF’s continued denial of the people's basic right to free and fair elections because he does not wanted the regime’s murderous past to be known.
US Ambassador Chris Dell said Tsvangirai was a "flawed and indecisive character"; the West knows Tsvangirai is a blundering idiot. The only reason Tsvangirai is still in power is because the Zimbabwean people, not the West, are naive to still consider him a capable leader! Indeed, ever since the signing of the GPA Tsvangirai has been more Mugabe’s puppet than that of the West.
You are really beginning to sound like Saddam Hussein's Information Minister, "Chemical" Ali wittering about Iraq winning the war when the Americans were already in Baghdad.
Mugabe is a ruthless tyrant who has destroyed the country’s economy and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to retain his iron grip on power. The people of Zimbabwe hate Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs with a burning passion; it is now clear that political power is slipping out of the dictator’s hands; regime change is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow. The only question to be settled now is what time is the sun rising!
Your pathetic attempts to recast Mugabe as a champion of the people fighting to stop white imperialists recolonizing Zimbabwe aided by Tsvangirai is fooling no one!
There so many things that are so offensive to good governance and human dignity in this Copac constitution it really beggars belief how a party like MDC that is supposedly standing for democratic change accept such trash. What Zimbabweans from all walks of life and political divide must now realize is this is not a race or political party issue but a national one and that it is in the nation's interest that this rubbish does not become the supreme law of the land.
The yes vote in the referendum is not a formality; with all the three parties having endorsed the constitution and the lack of free media in Zimbabwe, the system is loaded against the NO vote camp. Still reason is on the NO veto side and given a chance Zimbabweans will listen to reason. Zimbabweans are deliberately being kept in the dark but that does not mean they are stupid!
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